Monday, December 15, 2008

Whopper or Big Mac?

As I typed my last blog entry, the television blared its familiar background noise in my general direction. Usually, my brain does not bother with the hassle of translating the sound waves into coherent language. However, one little tidbit of advertising made it through. This was the new "whopper virgin" commercial. For those of you who have not seen it, the basic premise is that people in third world countries taste both a Big Mac and a Whopper, and decide once and for all which is the better burger. These people, in theory, have never tried a hamburger before and are deemed "Whopper Virgins."

It turns out, like everything these days, that these commercials are offensive to a lot of people. There are numerous articles on the ole' int'net about how it is wrong to travel to underprivileged countries and exploit their poverty. I don't really see it that way because, despite the convincing disclaimer by Burger King that the people in the commercials are "not actors", I don't buy it for a second. It seems to me that if you feed non- burger eating people two burgers back to back, you better step back to avoid the inevitable barrage of regurgitated burger. Heck, I think I would puke if asked to eat a whopper and a big mac.

Incidentally, I am not certain which I would choose. The Whopper certainly has more substance, feels more like a meal. But the Big Mac taste is hard to find anywhere else. It is like comparing Honey Nut Cheerios to Lucky Charms. I like them both, but have had neither in years.

3 comments:

You are obviously a better person than I. I have had way more Big Macs and Whoppers than any one person should. I got really burnt out on Burger King, though, because it was the only fast food place by my old office and those days when I was racing to get to work and didn't bring lunch and didn't want to spend my entire break traveling to and from the grocery store or somewhere more healthy (like once a week), I went there.

As for people being offended. My theory is that people are just looking for reasons to get indignant. This is their cause du jour. Relax, people!

In my past life I would have answered this question with a cliche' Variety is the spice of life" and so I would have said I choose Whopper for Saturday and Big Mac for Sunday. They both are wonderful sandwiches and deserve to be equally enjoyed...unfortunately now I am simply on the quest for anything at all that I can eat at fast food. I was told they serve veggie whoppers now so I am looking forward to trying this.

Cara, do not fear, for I went to Wawa today and read the nutrition label on a "healthy" chicken sandwich with a pickle, lettuce, and tomato. 870 calories. Yikes, maybe Burger King ain't so bad.Tiff, after Wawa's mega-calorie sandwiches, I did decide that perhaps BK veggie burger was the way to go. Not so. They did not have it. Perhaps this is franchise-specific, because I know I have seen it at the one near the office......and yes, my Whopper Jr was deeelicious!